BULLETIN 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

1916: No: 67 



DECEMBER 1 



1016 



A Study of Rural Schools In 
Travis County, Texas 



BY 



E. E. DAVIS 

Department of Extension, Division of School Interests 




Published by the University six times a month and entered as 

second-class matter at the postoffice at 

AUSTIN, TEXAS 

Monograph _^ 



Publications of the University of Texas 



Publications Committee: 
W, J. Battle C. Hartman 

E. C. Babksr J, L, Hendekson 

J. M. Bryant A. C. Judson 

G. C. Butte J. A. Lomax 

R. H. Griffith 



The University publishes bulletins six times a month. These 
eamprise the official publications of the University, publica- 
tions on humanistic and scientific subjects, bulletins prepared 
by the Department of Extension and by the Bureau of Munic- 
ipal Research, and other bulletins of general educational in- 
terest. With the exception of special numbers, any bulletin will 
be sent to a citizen of Texas free on request. All communica- 
tions about University publications should be addressed to tiie 
Editor of University Publications, University of Texas, Austin. 



A. C. BALDWIN • 90Nf: AUffriM 



B13-1216-3m 



BULLETIN 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

1916: No: 67 



DECEMBER 1 



1916 



A Study of Rural Schools In 
Travis County, Texas 



BY 



E. E. DAVIS 

Department of Extension, Division of School Interests 




Published by the University six times a montli and entered as 

second-class matter at the postoffice at 

AUSTIN. TEXAS 



LH3'^ 



The benefits of education and of 
useful knowledge, generally diffused 
through a community, are essential 
to the preservation of a free govern- 
ment. 

Sam Houston. 

Cultivated mind is the guardian 
genius of democracy. . . . It is 
the only dictator that freemen ac- 
knowledge and the only security that 
freemen desire. 

President Mirabeau B. Lamar. 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this investigation is to make an accurate and 
scientific estimate of the status of public education in about two 
hundred square miles of the southeastern part of Travis County. 
By making a close survey of this area and reporting it to the 
public in the following pages, it is hoped that other communities 
similarly situated will be assisted in finding where they stand 
educationally. This report is intended to serve as a simple, 
direct sort of guide whereby a rural community may conduct a 
self-examination into its school affairs, determining its points of 
greatest strength and revealing its sources of greatest weakness. 
It is a method of attack by examination and diagnosis before the 
issuance of a prescription or other remedial measure. 

This study has been presented as one chapter of a thesis offered 
in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master 
of Arts in the University of Texas, and its publication in this 
form ahead of the completion of the thesis has been allowed. 

I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Dean W. S. Sutton 
and Dr. A. Caswell Ellis for their counsel and many valuable 
suggestions to me in the course of this survey. I am also indebt- 
ed to Dr. J. C. Bell, Dr. L. W. Sackett, and Dr. T. A. Kelley 
for their co-operation and assistance in connection with the 
standard educational tests used in this piece of work. The as- 
sistance of Miss L. R. Rogers, graduate student in education, in 
tabulating the results of some of the educational tests given to 
the pupils is most highly appreciated. I also wish to express 
my appreciation to County Superintendent Miss Maud Doug- 
las, and the teachers in the schools that were examined, for their 

verv helpful co-operation. 

E. E. Davis. 



.CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. Economic and Social Conditions 7 

General Description 7 

Farm Tenancy 7 

Social Classes ^ 

The Mexicans 10 

The NeoToes 12 

The Whites 12 

Churches 12 

How some Laymen Stated the Problem IB 

II. Finances 16 

Sources of School Revenues 16 

Comparison with the School INIaintenance Tax at 

Austin, 16 

Comparison with all the Rural Schools of Travis 

County ^7 

School Property ^ 8 

Total Expenditure for Education 18 

Discussion 21 

III. Grounds, Buildings and Equipment 23 

Yards and Grounds 2.S 

Shade Trees and Play Apparatus 23 

Outbuildings 23 

Water Supply 23 

Buildincys 23 

Heating 23 

Lightino^ 23 

Cleanliness and General Order 2.^1 

Interior Decorations -^ 

Desks, Chairs, and Blackboards 2G 

Libraries 2B 

Conclusion 26 

IV. Course of Study 2S 

The Cast of Teaching each Subject. . 28 

Drawing and Writing 2<^ 

Spelling 29 

Reading B1 

Physiologj^ B2 

Language and Grammar 3"^ 

Arithmetic B3 

. Geography 36 



Bulletin of the University of Tex<as 



PAGE 

Civics 36 

Agriculture 36 

Composition 37 

History 37 

High School Studies 37 

Y. Teachers 39 

Experience and Tenure of Office 39 

Living Conditions 39 

Certificates and Salaries 40 

Attitude of Teachers 41 

Instruction 41 

Discus,sion 42 

VI. Pupils 44 

White Pupils 44 

Mexican Pupils 44 

Negro Pupils 46 

Causes of Irregular Attendance 46 

Distribution of Pupils in the Grades 46 

VII. Conclusions and Recommendations 50 

State Aid 50 

School Equipment 50 

The Securing of Teachers 51 

A Graduated Land Tax 52 

A County School Tax 53 



I. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

General Description: The area included in this survey con- 
sists of that portion of Travis County south of the Colorado 
River and east of the International and Great Northern Rail- 
road, extending to the Hays and Caldwell County lines. It em- 
braces approximately 200 square miles of territory, with a pop- 
ulation of 13,360, or 66 persons to the square mile. It is strict- 
ly a rural area, and outside of three small villages of less than 
200 each, the people are engaged almost entirely in agriculture. 
Most of the soil is black clay loam, quite fertile, and devoted, 
very largerly, to the production of cotton. Fully ninety per 
cent of all the land is in cultivation. But little land is on the 
marke^. The average price of the few exchanges reported for 
the tw^o years preceding this survey was $90.25 per acre. 

Farm Tenancy: The high price of laud makes home-owning 
almost prohibitive for many poor people ; 63.1 per cent of all 
the families are tenants; and in some communities the rate of 
farm tenancy to total population exceeds 80 per cent. In the 
area included in this survey 35.2 per cent of the 511 white fam- 
ilies do not own their homes, 78.4 per cent of the 398 negro fami- 
lies are farm tenants, and less than 2 per cent of approximately 
230 Mexican families were reported as owning their homes free 
of debt. 

Many of the whites and negroes classed as home-owners have 
merely bargained for high-priced land which they will never 
possess free of mortgage. In fact hard as the way of the renter 
is, the lot in life for many of those who know nothing but the 
one-crop system, would be easier if they w^ere renting. The in- 
terest, the taxes, and the upkeep on the land they desire to 
possess are costing them more per acre per year than the rent on 
the same land would be. 

A high percentage of farm tenants is not conducive to good 
schools. It is not natural to expect the average farm tenant to 
have the community interests that he would if he were perman- 
ently located on land of his own. But a no less serious menace to 
the prosperity of the public schools in. some of the tenant dis- 



Bulletin of the University of Texas 



tricts in sight of the dome of the Capitol at Austin, is the ab- 
sentee landlord who is opposed to local school taxes. Diligent 



TENANCY IN THE AREA 
SURVEYED 




1130 families- all races 




511 IDlute families 398 Jle^ro families 230 JRe.xican families 



inquiry was made, and in this area of 200 square miles and more 
than 13,000 population, only one absentee landlord was reported 
as actively encouraging his tenants to vote for a school tax. 



Bural Schools in Travis County 9 

After spending a day in one of these tenant communities, ex- 
amining the pupils at an old school house equipped with furni- 
ture thirty years out of date, the writer called on one of the 
trustees for an interview. This trustee, who was a representa- 
tive man of more than average intelligence, said: "Well, I 
guess I know what you want. You want to know what makes 
our school one of the sorriest in Travis County. I can teU you 
that in about fifteen words. This community is owned and con- 
trolled by about three men who do not live here. They keep 
their tenants in fear of them. Two yeara ago when we were cir- 
culating a petition for a tax election Mr. A. came out and said 
to his tenants, 'You vote a tax on me and I will see that you pay 
it I will raise the rent on the last one of you.' Mr. B. came 
out and said to his tenants, 'Gentlemen, you may vote a tax on 
me if vou chose, but you can prepare to move next year if you 
do.' Their bluffs carried. That was "the last of the proposed 
school tax. You have found our school in a deplorable condi- 
tion and I see no hope for any improvement." 

Forty-two per cent of the school districts in this area have 
no local school tax. The average rate for all the districts is less 
than 13 cents. Compare this with Runnels County, where 6^- 
per cent of all the districts in the county have voted the maxi- 
mum school tax of 50 cents each. Much of the poor financial 
showing for that portion of the Travis County rural schools in- 
cluded in this study is attributable to wealthy property holders 
both resident and non-resident, who object to paying school 

Thief among the resident landlords opposed to paying school 
taxes are those who operate their farms with negro and Mexi- 
can tenants. Not all of these persons protest against a local 
school tax, but most of them do. They dislike the idea of pay- 
ing out money for educating negro and Mexican children. ^ 

Social Classes: This economic discord is further augmented 
by sharplv drawn lines of social and racial demarcation. The 
human element is out of harmony with itself. A population 
consisting of approximately 5280 whites, 3320 Mexicans, and 
4760 negroes, is not productive of first class community spirit. 
In a number of communities where the whites once predommat- 



10 



Bulletin-of the University of Texas 



ed, cliurches are now depleted of their forces, schools are badly 
run down, and all races are destitute of any well-organized 
forms of social recreation. 




Where the Mexicans Live 

TJie Mexicans: During recent years there has been a very 
marked increase in the number of Mexican farm tenants in some 
of the white communities. The advent of the Mexican tenant 
seems to be attributable in the main to two causes: (1) the in- 
flux of refugees from Mexico due to the revolutions in that 



Rural ISchools in Travis County H 

country during the past five years; (2) tlie lower standards of 
living on the part of the Mexicans, which makes tlie Mexican 
tenant move profitable to the landlord than the white tenant. 

This wave of peon and middle-class Mexican refugees has 
very perceptibly extended itself along the International and 
Great Northern, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroads 
as far north as Bexar, Hays, Cald\yell, and Travis Counties. The 
1910 census showed the greatest density of Mexican population 
in Texas to be in Bexar and Caldwell Counties. Those Mexi- 
cans have since served as a nucleus to which their refugee 
friends have gravitated and spread out to neighboring coun- 
ties. "Nor have the American farmers been slow to take advan- 
tage of the Mexican's economic dependence and low standards 
of living to exploit his muscle for all it is worth. In this way 
the general standards and desirability of many communities as 
places for white people to live have been very materially re- 
duced." 

The displacement of white tenants by Mexican tenants is so 
diluting the white population that its effects are very telling in 
the schools. The case reported at the Pleasant Hill School ex- 
emplifies this statement. Four years ago there were eighty-five 
white pupils and three teachers. Now there are only fifty-six 
white pupils and two teachers, with thirty-nine Mexican child- 
ren of school age running at large over the community and not 
one of them reported as having attended school a single daj,^ the 
past school year. 

In those districts where the Mexicans and the white children 
attend school together, there are such differences of race, lan- 
guage, and character, that there is a serious lack of congeni- 
ality among the pupils. For this reason separate schools for the 
Mexican children are preferred at times by the Mexicans as well 
as the whites. While this may not be true in portions of 
Southwest Texas, where the Mexicans have been established for 
so many years, it is decidedly true in Travis County. 



12 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

TJie Negroes: While the negro's standard of living is equal- 
ly as low as that of the Mexican, the negro is not such a serious 
social problem. This is due to two facts: (1) The negroes 
speak the English language while the Mexicans do not; (2) the 
negroes have a separate school system while the Mexicans are 
legally classed as white, and are entitled to school privileges 
along with the white children. 

TJie Whites: Conditions are still further aggravated by the 
fact that the whites themselves are not homogeneous. They 
consist mainly of Americans, Germans, and Swedes, separated 
from each other by the barriers of language, custom, and re- 
ligious creeds that prevent the highest type of community co- 
operation. Furthermore, during recent years, many of the well- 
to-do white families have moved to the city, and at present 127, 
or 25 per cent, of the 511 white families remaining in the coun- 
try have automobiles that take m-any of them to the city for 
their church and social life. 

Most of the whites live as individuals and not as very loyal 
members of a community or of any organization. Of all the 
whites, the Germans are about the only ones that have any defi- 
nite social organizations other than a few secret lodges. There 
are three German halls — Stolle Hall, Onion Creek Hall, and Elm 
Grove Hall. These are German social centers. There they hold 
their dances and other social events. Most of the social centers 
reported were nothing more than mere congregating places for 
men and boys of all races and nationalities at country stores, 
gins, and barber-shops. 

Churches : The churches in this area are as dead as the gen- 
eral dissipation of community interests can well make them. 
Some buildings are already abandoned and others nearing aban- 
donment. Congregations once strong in numbers and spiritu- 
ally prosperous are now weak and dying victims of the social 
and economic disorder brought about during the past decade 
by the townward drift of many prominent families, the corre- 



Rural Schools i7i Travis County 15?" . 

pondhig ingress of foreigners, and the rapid increase in the 
number of negro and Mexican tenants. The Baptist and the 
Methodist churches at Cloud are sad examples of this sort. 

The Swedish Lutheran church at Elroy is the only church 
in the entire area that maintains a resident pastor for full time, 
and is also the only one that seems to be prospering in a sub- 
stantial way. Most of the other churches are served by absen- 
tee pastors with one to three or four services per month, while 
two of the thirteen white churches were entirely without pas- 
tors. 

In a white population of more than five thousand only seven 
organized Sunday schools were reported and most of them were 
very weak and poorly attended. On asking the teachers, "How 
is Sunday usually spent by the majority of the white people ini 
this communitv?" the following answers were received: "Rnn- 
ning over the' country"; "visiting and loafing"; "wandering: 
aimlessly about"; "sleeping and resting"; "dancing at the 
German hall"; "at church and Sunday school." At only four 
of the fourteen school districts investigated, did the principal 
of the school mention church and Sunday school as the chief 
Sunday attraction of the people in the community. 

How Some Laymen Stated the rroUem: That the high price 
of land, the absentee landlord, the farm tenant, the Mexican, 
the negro, and the automobile have brought about almost insur- 
mountable social and economic complications in this area, the 
following statements from local teachers, trustees, and church 
officials will amply attest : 

"Our church was organized in 1885. I am a charter mem- 
• ber. I was superintendent of the Sunday school for ten years. 
I got discouraged and resigned two years ago. Our church is the 
deadest it has ever been in all its existence. Lack of pastoral 
leadership, indiff'erence among laymen, automobiles for the well- 
to-do, the loss of some of our best families, and the rapid in- 
crease of Mexican and negro tenants have done it."— A deacon. 
"We can get into our car and go to town just about as quicldy 
as we can go to our own church out here; then we hear a sermon 
—a real sermon. We used to have big crowds at our church, but 
now there are only a few faces at each service."— A steward. 



J. 4 



Bulletm of the University of Texas 



'"I recently moved my church membership to Austin — eight 
Tmiles. I did not want to do it, but had to in self-defense. We 
ican not have anything worth while out here any longer. The 
preachers we get are so weak they are not interesting. I prefer 




Abandoned Church at Carl at Top; Baptist Chl-rch at 
Cloud in Middle; Methodist Church at Cloud at Bottom 

to go to town where I can receive some instruction from a ser- 
.jnon that is really worth while." — A deacon. 

•^'The great trouble with our community is we have too few 
■wTiite families. Mr. A's farm of 570 acres has but one white 
family on it; Mr. B's farm of 900 acres has not a single white 



Rural Scliools in Travis County la 

family; and Mr. C's farm of 400 acres is run entirely by ne- 
groes and Mexicans."— A scbool trustee. 

"Our schoolhouse is one of the poorest white schoolhouses in 
the county, I have been informed. Our teacher is but little, if 
any, above' the average for the country. But the schoolhouse 
and the classroom are not all that is wrong. There is some- 
thing further back. The roving tenant farmers, a few hostile 
landlords, and the difference of race among the people in this 
community, I regard as the principal hindering causes."— A 
school trustee. 

"It is hard to keep your school organized and orderly when 
new pupils keep dropping in from other schools as the tenants 
change. Some new ones persist in talking out loud and moving 
about in the room because they were allowed to do so before 
cominsr here." — A teacher. 

"I sometimes think it would be better not to start school until 
after Christmas, as most of the time prior to Christmas is spent 
in picking cotton and moving."— A teacher in a tenant com- 
munity. 

Final Suggestion: While the economic and social condirons 
described in this chapter are by no means representative of the 
entire State, similar conditions may be found elsewhere in the 
State. In fact, there are very few counties, if any, so fortunate 
a.s to have entirely escaped all the evils mentioned— the selfish 
landlord, the restless tennant, the movement from country to 
town, the negro and the I\Iexican, and white foreigners of 
un-American spirit. Many communities in Texas could profit 
very materially if they would only take inventory and find 
where they stand religiously, educationally, and industrially. 
A correct diagnosis is essential to the cure of any evil. 



II. FINANCES 

Sources of School Revenue: The schools iucluued in the 
area of this educational survey depend almost entirely on the 
State appropriation for their financial support. Of the four- 
teen school districts, six have no local maintenance tax; four 
have 10 cents; three have 20 cents; and one has 25 cents. In 
four districts buildings have been erected and partially equip- 
ped by issuing bonds. The tax rates supporting the bonds is- 
sued in these four districts are 8 cents, 10 cents, 14 cents, and 
25 cents, respectively. 

In 1915, these tax rates produced a total of $4047 for school 
maintenance, and a total of $2102 for the interest and sinking 



AMOUNT OF LOCAL SCHOOL MAINTENANCE TAX 
PER CHILD. 1915 



J!ustin 

IB 

,ilrea Surveyed 



fund on the school bonds that had been issued. The taxable 
wealth in the fourteen school districts consists mainly of farm 
lands, and was rendered to the Travis County Tax Assessor in 
1915 at approximately $5,241,078.00. If all the local school 
taxes collected in the eight districts voting such taxes had been 
distributed evenly over the entire wealth of the fourteen dis- 
tricts, the maintenance rate would have been 7.7 cents and the 
bond rate 4 cents. 

Comparison With the School Maintenance Taxes of Austin: 
In 1915, the property of Austin as valued by the City Assessor 
was $23,236,691.00 and as valued by the County Assessor was 
$15,578,130.00. The local school maintenance tax of 45 cents 
was levied against the valuation made by the City Assessor, 



Rural ScJwols in Travis County 



17 



producing $104,565.00. If the levy had been against the valua- 
tion made by the County Assessor, as is n^'acticed in the rural 
districts, a tax rate of 67.1 cents would have been necessary to 
produce that amount. 

These rural districts are not financing their schools to the 
full extent of their ability. They are contributing annually to 
their local school maintenance fund 7.7 cents from each $100 of 
wealth, while Austin is contributing 67.1 cents. In other words, 
according to its financial ability, Austin is doing practically nine 



AMOUNT INVESTED IN SCHOOL PROPERTY 
PER CHILD 1915 



h66.86 



?er Ulhite child in Jlustin 
?er Jle^'ro child in jlustin 



ferlDhiie child in rural area surveijed 



'PerJie^ro child in Tural area surveyed 



times as much for the education of its children as these country 
schools are doing. In 1915, the local school maintenance taxes 
in Austin amounted to $15.38 per child, and in the rural area 
nnder consideration, $1.62 per child. 

Comparison 'Wii% All the Rural Schools of Travis Co'unty: 
It is disappointing to note that the entire fifty-nine common 
school districts in Travis County are giving no better financial 
support to their schools than the fourteen districts in the south- 
ern part of the countj^ included in this study. In 1915, the 



18 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

entire wealth of Travis County as valued by the county tax as- 
sessor was $38,072,520.00. Subtract from this the renditions for 
the towns of Manor, Pflugerville, and Austin, and you have ap- 
proximately $20,494,390.00, the amount of property rendered 
for taxation in the fifty-nine rural school districts of Travis 
County. The entire local school taxes for both maintenance 
and bond purposes in all the rural school districts of the county 
in 1915, amounted to $14,992.02, or $2.39 per child. A tax rate 
of 7.3 cents on all the property of these districts would have 
produced that amount. 

It will be recalled from paragraph two of this chapter that 
a uniform maintenance tax rate of 7.7 cents, and a uniform 
bond tax rate of 4 cents would have produced an amount equiv- 
alent to the local school taxes for all purposes paid in the rural 
area where this investigation was conducted. The rural dis- 
tricts in the area surveyed are slightly above the average for the 
rural districts of the entire county in the financial support of 
their schools. They contribute an average of 11.7 cents from 
each $100 of wealth, while the average for the county is 7.3 
cents. 

School Property: For the school year 1915-16, the city of 
Austin had 6799 children, white and colored, enumerated as 
entitled to free school privileges, and $817,925, or $120.30 per 
child, invested in school property. For the same year this rural 
area, had 2489 children, and $31,270, or $12.57 per child, in- 
vested in school property, ^^^lile, as has been shown, the city 
of Austin is almost nine times as li])eral as thes?^ rural districts 
in providing maintenance funds foi' its schools, it is at the same 
time almost ten times as liberal jn providing houses and other 
school equipment. 

The value of the school property per white child in the coun- 
try, excluding Mexicans, is $25.72. The value of school prop- 
erty per negro child is $9.02. Austin has 2371 negro school 
children, with $30.04 each invested in school property. Or in 
other words, Austin has $6.32 more per child invested in school 
•equipment for its negro children than these rural districts have 
for their white children. 

Total Expenditure for Education: The total amount raised 



FINANCIAL STRENGTH AS INDICATED 

BY PROPERTY RENDITIONS TO 
THE TRA9IS COUNTY TAX ASSESSOR 1915 




lOealth per capi ta popu lation in Jlustin \Dealth per capita population in area surwjed 



AMOUNT EXPENDED FOR SCHOOL MAIN- 
TENANCE FOR EACH '100 OF WEALTH 




jlustin 



J\ll rural schools in Travis County 



Jliisttn is contributing more tlian nine times as much from each *tOO of 
.Ijiealth for Public School JUaintenance as the rural schools of Travis County 



Rural Schools in Travis CoiDity 



21 



by local taxation for school maintenance and for providinL? the 
interest and sinkino- fund on the school bonds in this group of 
rural districts in 1915 was $6149, or $2.47 per child. Add to 
this amount the $6 per capita appropriated by the State and you 
have $8.47 for the total amount expended for the education 
of each child that year. In 1914, there was expended for the 
education of each child in Illinois $38.61, and in Utah $38.88. 
Discussion: These facts and figures may seem startling to 
some people, but to one familiar with rural school finances m 
Texas they are no revelation. Nor do they militate against 
Travis County as compared with some of her neighbors. Some 
counties immediately adjacent to Travis County, in the very 
heart of the richest black land that Texas possesses, would m all 
probability make no better showing. It is doubtful if a single 
county in the entire Black Land Belt can boast of a record like 
Eunnels County in "West Texas, where thirty-one out of fifty 
rural school districts have voted the maximum school tax of 
50 cents. 

The remedy for the financial depression of these country 
schools is the'voting of more local taxes. But this remedy, for 
causes mentioned in chapter I of this bulletin, seems to be well 
nigh impracticable in some districts. And what makes it more 
serious still, there are many other persons than those mentioned 
in chapter I who oppose a school tax. Some of them do it be- 
cause of an inherent dislike for the tax idea. They feel that 
taxation is synonymous with oppression. They take fright when 
a tax of any sort is proposed. 

It is strange to note that men who pay the smallest amount 
of school taxes are sometimes among those loudest in their pro- 
testations. And stranger still, they not uncommonly have large 
families of children of school age who would become the im- 
mediate beneficiaries of such taxes. 

These people have never stopped and considered long enough 
and seriouslv enough to fully appreciate the value of an edu- 
cational investment, or the relative smallness of the amount in- 
vested even when the maximum school tax of 50 cents on the 
$100 propertv valuation is paid. A one-cent postage stamp 
would pay a 50 cent school tax on one dollar for two years, or 



22 Bulletin of ihe University of Texas 

a 25 cent school tax on one dollar for four years. After due 
consideration, there are few people who would object to con- 
tributing so small a sum as one-half of one cent from the annual 
earnings of each dollar to so worthy a cause as that of education. 

A local school tax of 50 cents on the $100 property valuation 
in each district of this wealthy agricultural area, if properly 
administered, would build and equip new schoolhouses, install 
adequate libraries, extend the lengths of school terms, and give 
to these country children most of the educational advantages 
now accorded to the children of the nearby city of Austin. Such 
a tax would produce .$10.53 per child, as compared with the 
present average of .$2.47. This would compare very favorably 
with the $15.38 local school taxes per child in Austin last year. 

The most sacred heritage of any community is its children. 
The most sacred investments any community can make are those 
investments for the protection and education of its youth. 



III. GKOUNDS, BUILDINGS, AND EQUIPMENT 

Yards and Grounds: The school yards for the fifteen white 
schools embraced a total of 21% acres, or slightly less than li/^ 
acres each. Three of them were enclosed w'ith good fences, and 
four had no fences at all. I?i ten out of the eleven cases where 
the yards were fenced, the gates and stiles were in very poor 
condition. 

Shade Trees and Play Apparatus: Nine of the school yards 
were well supplied with shade trees and six had none. Nine of 
the schools were equipped with baslcet ball courts, seven with 
baseball diamonds, two with seesaws, one with croquet courts, 
and three had no play apparatus of any sort. 

Oufbuildings: Most of the outbuildings were in very bad 
condition. At two places there were no toilets for the boys. The 
only fly-proof toilets were at Maha. At Elroy, where twenty or 
more of the pupils drove to school, the community had erected 
a very commodious shed for the vehicl'"s and driving stock. 

Water Supply: — The sources of water supply were as follows: 
1 spring, 3 underground cisterns with buckets and pulleys, 6 
overground cisterns, and 5 wells at farm houses and country 
stores at an average distance of about 300 y cards from the 
schoolhouse. At one school the water was distributed to the 
pupils by bubbling foiuitains, at four by hydrants and individual 
cups, at five by individual cups and common buckets, and at 
five by common cups and common buckets. 

Buildings: Two of the buildings were constructed of brick: 
one of stone; and twelve of wood. Four of them were in good 
condition; two in fair condition; and nine in poor condition. 
There were twenty-eight classrooms, one hall, thirteen cloak 
rooms, and no auditoriums. Ten window panes were missing, 
and at thirteen schools the window panes were not kept clean. 

Heating: There w^ere five jacketed stoves and twenty-three 
unjaeketed stoves. Thre? of the stoves were neatly polished and 
twenty-five v/ere unpolished. At most places the heating and 
ventilating of schoolrooms was very unsatisfactory. 

Lighting: Taken as a whole, the lighting was as unsatis- 




Eleven of the "White Schools Included in This Survey 



Rural Schools in Travis County 



25 



factory as the heating. Only four buildings had the windows 
grouped so as to prevent cross-lighting, and the seats so arranged 
that no strong outside light came directly into the pupils' eyes. 
Eleven schools had adjustable window shades and four had no 
window shades at all. 

Cleanliness and General Order: Most of the floors vvere well 
swept, though the physical condition of some of them was such 
as to make it very difficult to keep them clean and sanitary. At 
seven of the buildings the floors were old, .rough, splintery, and 






Source of Water Supply at the Cloud School 

filled with numerous cracks that harbored dust and dirt. Four- 
teen of the buildings w^ere swept daily, and one twice a week. 
In every case the sweeping was done either by the teachers or 
the pupils. 

In three instances the interior walls were very dirty and the 
furniture unclean and badly defaced. In ten schools the chalk 
rails were in a very foul condition and the erasures were satu- 
rated with chalk dust. 

Interior Decorations: In the entire twenty-ei' juit schoolrooms, 



26 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

only twelve g-ood pictures copied from the world's greatest ar- 
tists were found. Most of the other pictures consisted of calen- 
dars and cheap chromos. However, the Avail decorations from 
drawings of the primary department at Cloud and Elroy were 
very appropriate and attractive. 

Desks, Chairs, and Blackboards: Thirteen rooms were 
equipped with a desk and chair each for the teacher, while fif- 
teen rooms were not. Eight rooms had as much as twenty-five 
linear feet of good hyloplate blackboard each, while twenty rooms 
had less amounts of blackboard and quite often what they did 
have was of a very poor quality. 

There were only three schools — St. Elmo, Carl, and Elm 
Grove — that were seated throughout with single desks arranged 
so that all the desks in the same row were of the same size and 
properly adapted to the comfort of the children occupying them. 
Seven other schools were partially seated with single desks. In 
quite a number of rooms the desks were not fastened to the 
floor and were constantly being moved out of position by the 
pupils. This caused much disorder and useless noise. In all 
the schools, by actual count, there were 212 pupils improperly 
and uncom-fortably .seated. 

Libraries: Twelve schools had cabinets for their libraries, 
and three had none. All the libraries consisted of a total of 848 
volumes valued at $312.50. Three of the libraries had no books 
that could be classed as useless for public school purposes, while 
in twelve of them, from ten to seventy-five per cent of the books 
were government reports or other volumes of very little value on 
the library shelves in a small public school. The total number 
of books, other than text books, read during the previous year 
by all pupils above the second grade in these schools was 907, 
or less than two books each. 

Conclusion: The physical equipment of the fifteen white 
schools in the area surveyed is in all probability very far below 
the standards of school equipment set up by any town in Texas 
containing the same amount of wealth and population. If the 
amount invested ni school property per child in the white schools 
of this area (^an be taken as an index of the educational interest 



V 



\ 

\ 



Rural Scltools in Tracis Countij 



27 



of the people, it compares with the interest tal<en in the educa- 
tion of the white children of Austin as 1 to 51/2. 

What makes the situation all the more serious is that these 
schools are not only far below the average city in the relative 
amount of school equipment, but much of the equipment they 
do have is very inferior in kind and quality. In other words, 
the school property in this rural area is not so well adapted to 
school needs in the country as the school property of most cities 
is to school needs in the city. A small laboratory well identified 





Interior View of the ]\Lvha School — a One-room School 



with the problems of farm and the farm home, a library and 
reading- room, and an auditorium used as a community meeting 
place, should constitute essential parts of every ideal country 
school. 



IV. COURSE OF STUDY 

It was gratifying to find that twelve of the fifteen principals 
were supplied with copies of the Course of Study issued by the 
State Department of Education and had put to good use many 
of the suggestions from it in framing the programs for their 
year's worlc. But in most eases the spirit of this course of study 
was not followed so closely as the letter of it. Some of the 
teachers adapted their instruction well to the lives and needs 
of their pupils. Others were formal, confined to the textbooks, 
and could not relate their instruction to the experiences of their 
pupils in a profitable way. 

Table Show^ing the Subjects Taught, the Number of Pupils 

IN Each Subject, and the Cost per Pupil per 

Month for Teaching Each Subject* 

Cost per 

Subject Number pupil 

of pupils per month 

Drawing 364 .07 

Writing 616 .11 

Physiology 333 .18 

Plane Geometry 33 .25 

Spelling 569 .29 

Physical Geography . . 85 .30 

Composition 248 .33 

Arithmetic 585 .54 

Geography 272 .55 

History 266 .57 

Physics 14 . .60 

Reading 691 .62 

Latin 24 .63 

Civics 36 .63 



*These estimates are based on the amounts paid the teachers in 
salaries and the amount of time devoted to each subject as indicated 
by the daily programs of the teachers. 



Rural Schools in Travis County 29 

Cost per 

Subject Number pupil 

of pupils per month 

Language 278 .64 

Agriculture 55 .68 

Grammar 112 .79 

Bookkeeping 6 1.39 

Algebra 68 1.56 

Spanish 13 1.69 

Drawing: Drawing was taught to 364 pupils in the primary- 
grades. Less time was given to drawing than to any other sub- 
ject in the course of study. From such evidences as the observer 
could gather there were only three teachers at all qualified to 
teach this very important subject. At some places it was pass- 
ing by default. 

Writing: The quality of the penmanship of these schools was 
measured by the Ayers scale for measuring handwriting.* The 
accompanying table shows how this handwriting compares with 
that of pupils of the Iioyal Street School at Dallas as measured 
by the same scale. It will be noticed that the Dallas pupils in 
all the grades reported in this table went a few points higher 
on the scale than did the pupils of this group of rural schools 
in Travis County. 

Table Cmparing the Handw^riting of the Pupils in the Rural 

Schools Surveyed with that of the Pupils of the 

Royal Street Schooi: at Dallas as IMeas- 

URED BY the AyERS ScALE FOR MeAS- 
UTflNG HaNDAVRITING 



Grade 3 

Dallas scores 34 

Rural school scores 29.3 



Spelling: Standard tests in spelling taken from the Ayers and 



4 


5 


6 


7 


36 


46 


49.8 


47.6 


33.5 


43.3 


43.4 


46.4 



*Ayers, Leonard P., A Scale for Measuring the Quality of Hand- 
writing of School Children, Bulletin No. 113, Russell Sage Founda- 
tion, New York City. 



30 Bidletin of the University of Texas 

the Buckingham Spelling Scales* were given 243 pupils from the 
third to the tenth grades. The pupils from the second to the sev- 
enth grades in the Dallas schools were given these tests last year. 
'A comparative study of the results shows that these rural school 
pupils were from one to four years behind the Dallas pupils in 
spelling. The fourth grade was 1.03 years behind the Dallas 
fourth grade, and the seventh grade was 2.73 years behind the 
Dallas seventh grade. According to the system of scoring, the 
tenth grade scored 59.1 as compared with a score of 60.9 for the 
Dallas sixth grade. Taking Dallas as the standard, the tenth grade 
pupils in the rural schools were found to be 4.4 years behind 
their grade in spelling. 

There were at least two causes for the poor spelling : 
(1) At Elroy, a large three-teacher school, and the best 
school included in this survey in its internal organization and 
the character of instruction given, the children are of Swedish 
and German parentage and speak English only when at school. 
That the almost exclusive use of the Swedish and German 
languages at home was to some extent responsible for the very 
poor grades made in the tests given these children in spelling 
and English composition, there can be no doubt. The same 
thing was true of the German community of Elm Grove. (2) 
Too much of the instruction given in spelling in several of the 
schools was by the old method of having tlic class stand up in a 
row next to the wall while the words pronounced by the teacher 
were spelled orall}^ At some schools practically no other sort of 
instruction in spelling was given. With more written exercises 
properly conducted, the spelling in most of these schools could 
be greatly improved. The oral method has been experimentally 
proven to be one of the least effective of all the ways of teaching 
spelling. 

It is costing these fifteen schools $167.45 per moijth, or $1,- 
136.60 per year to teach spelling. At the same time, if the facts 



*Ayers, Leonard P., A Scale for Measuring Ability in Spelling, 
Pamphlet E 139, Russell Sage Foundation, New York City; Buck- 
ingham, R. P.. Columbia Contributions to Education, No. ,59, Tep'-ii- 
er's College, Columbia University, New York City; Sackett, L. W.^ 
Measuring a School System by the Buckingham Suelling Scale, 
School and Society, Vol. II, No. 50, pages 860-864, December 11, 
1915, and No. 51, pages 894-898, December 18, 1915. 



Rural Schools in Travis Connhj 31 

were known, it is quite likely tliat the pnpils have learned much 
more spelling from their readino- and their written exercises in 
other studies than the formal oral instruction given them in the 
spelling classes. That some changes in the methods of instruc- 
tion in spelling would bring greater returns to these schools for 
the amount annually expended for teaching that subject, there 
can be no doubt. Close investigation leads one to believe that, 
as it now stands, the amount spent each year for teaching spell- 
ing is well-nigh wasted. 

Heading: Eeading was taught to 691 pupils at a cost of 
$426.29 per month. Tests in reading taken from Thorndike's_ 
Reading Scale* were given to these pupils. The grades made 
in reading were much better than those made in spelling, though 
all but the tenth grade were below standard. The other grades 
were all the way from one-quarter year to one whole year be- 
low the records made on these tests elsewhere. The poorest 
showing was made by the seventh grade. , It was barely able to 
pass tlie sixth grade standard tests. The next poorest was the 
fifth grade. It was one-half year below standard. The tenth 
grade was the best, and passed the tenth grade tests Avith an 
average of .OQi^ per cent above the standard for tenth-grade 
pupils. 

Out of a total enrollment of 84.3 pupils only twelve had sur- 
vived to the tenth grade. In all probability they were repre- 
sentative of the brightest and the most courageous pupils that 
entered these schools. Their superior reading ability is more 
likely traceable to superior innate ability, than to any superiority 
of instruction given in the small, overcrowded schools they have 
attended. 

If the school libraries were well supplied with an abundance 
of reading material well adapted for use in the grades from the 
first to the eighth, the reading ability of these pupils would be 
greatly improved. They read no better than they do, simply 
because they have never had the opportunity to do more read- 
ing. Thev have not become interested in reading, because they 



*Tliorndike, E. L., An Improved Scale for Measuring Ability in 
Reading Teacher's College Record, November, 1915, and January, 
1916. 



32 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

have not had many interesting books to read. Pupils seldom 
form the reading habit when most of their available reading 
material is confined to a few textbooks grown old and unattrac- 
tive from use. 

At the close of each of the reading examinations, a careful 
count was made by the pupils of all the books, not including 
textbooks, they had read during the year. Nine hundred and 
seven books, or less than two books each for the 522 pupils 
above second grade, were reported. A very large number of 
these were books purchased by the teachers and lent to the 
pupils. 

These schools can make no one investment that will be of 
more value to them than to install libraries supplied with an 
abundance of good reading material well adapted to the interests 
and abilities of all the pupils below the eighth grade. 

Physiology : No examinations were given the pupils in phy- 
siology. The interesting thing is that there were only two sub- 
jects below high school, drawing and physical geography, that 
were given less time than physiology. There was $29.86 more 
per month paid for teaching 112 pupils in English grammar 
than for teaching 333 pupils in physiology and hygiene. As a 
fundamental need in life which is the more important, that a 
child of fourteen have a practical working knowledge of hygiene 
and sanitation, or that it know how to parse a noun or conjugate 
a verb? 

Excepting a set of physiology charts at one school, there was 
no other apparatus for the teaching of this subject. Indications 
M'ere that most of the instruction was taken from textbooks. In 
this way the pupils had learned some human anatomy and pos- 
sibly had gotten an imaginary conception of the forms and func- 
tions of some of the bones and organs of the body. But as for 
that great body of information that has to do with food values, 
properly balanced rations, and the lessons of sanitation for lioth 
man and beast, they got very little in a concrele way. 

Language and Grammar: More was being paid per pupil per 
month for instruction in English grammar than for any other 
subject below high school. There were 112 pupils receiving in- 
struction in English grammar at a cost of 79- cents each per 



Rural Schools in Travis County 33 

month, and 278 pupils in the beginners' language courses at a 
cost of 64 cents each per month. Yet, in the face of the great 
expenditure of time and money on these subjects, the written 
English of the pupils in all the grades was very poor. 

To say that there is something wrong with the system of teach- 
ing English grammar in these schools does not necessarily mili- 
tate against the teachers, for they teach this subject just about 
as it is taught elsewhere, and no doubt their pupils made as good 
showing on the tests given as most pupils similarly environed 
would have made. But the fact still remains that much of the 
time spent on technical grammar must be almost or (piite lost 

to the pupil. 

If more attention were given to the practical use of written 
and spoken English in connection with the other branches, and 
less time spent in teaching formal grammar, the character of the 
instruction in English in the elementary grades could be greatly 
improved Some educators have suggested, and that with very 
good reasons, that formal grammar should not be taught before 
second-vear high school. 

There was no Greek grammar worthy of mention when Homer 
wrote. In the development of any language the very last ]mrt 
of it to take form is its terminations and its grammar. But in 
our instruction we often reverse this natural process, by attempt- 
ting to force an understanding of technical forms before the 
child even has acquired a working knowledge of a very limited 
vocabulary. This is like planting seed in soil that is too dry 
Ind cold for germination. More written lessons on the subjects 
of o-eooraphv, history, botany, insects, the farm, and other things 
that the pupils know something about, together with more books 
full of interest to children in the libraries of our country schools, 
will produce a much better harvest of English papers on exam- 
ination day than can be hoped to come from a study of ad- 
jectives and adverbs. 

Arithmetic: Proficiency in the use of numbers requires three 
things- (1) speed in the fundamental operations; (2) accuracy 
in the fundamental operations; (3) correct reasoning. To test 
these three elements of ability, Courtis' standard researcn te°ts, 
Series B, for speed and accuracy in arithmetic,* and Starch s 
reasoning tests. Scale A, in arithmetic** were used. 

The Courtis tests for speed and accuracy in arithmetic have 
been given to thousands of children in other states and the 



3i Bulleti7i of the University of Texas 

results carefully tabulated. These tests were given to the chil- 
dren in this group of rural schools under the same conditions 
and in the same way they have been given elsewhere. Each 
child was given a printed list of the examples in addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, and division. Then in the spirit of a 
contest rather than in the spirit of an examination, the entire 
group of pupils in each grade worked during the time assigned 
to each list of examples, each individual endeavoring to solve 
correctly as many examples as possible. The time given to ad- 
dition was eight minutes, to subtraction four minutes, and to 
multiplication six minutes, and to division eight minutes. 

With the exception of two rooms, the pupils worked at these 
tests with the greatest enthusiasm, quite unconscious of the fact 
that they were undergoing an examination. In the two rooms in 
question, before the examiner could get matters under control, 
the teachers became nervous and admonished their pupils not 
to get excited, but to keep natural, for thej'' were going to be 
given an examination. Of course the grades made by these 
pupils were very poor and not at all representative of their 
ability. For the sake of scientific accuracy, they were not 
counted in the final tabulation. 

These examinations were given in February and March, 1916. 
Most of them were given in March. A study of the accompany- 
ing table will show how the children of this group of Texas rural 
schools compare in speed and accuracy in arithmetic with the 
February examinations of 3618 children taken in a general way 
from cities in several states in 1914, with the May examinations 
of 55,271 children in the Boston schools in 1915, with the May 
examinations of 2850 children in the Detroit schools in 1915, and 
with the June examinations of 11,800 children in the state of 
Iowa in 1915. 

In every instance the number of examples attempted, and the 
number of examples worked correctly, were lower in this group 
of country schools than for the corresponding grades in Boston, 
and Detroit, and among the 11,800 pupils tested in Iowa. Some- 
times this difference was as great as 50 per cent, the average 
difference being approximately 25.5 per cent. 

Throughout this series of tests for speed and accuracy in 



* Courtis, S. A., Manual of Instruction for Giving and Scoring the 
three R's, Department of Co-operative Research, Detroit, Mich. 

**Starch, Daniel E., A Scale for Measuring Ability in Arithmetic 
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. VII, No. 4, April, 1916. 



Rural ScJiOols in Travis Coiuity 



35 



arithmetic the fourth grade pupils came neai'cr measuriug up 
to the standard than was true of the pupils in any other grade. 
An examination of the table will show that the fourth grade is 
the only grade that measures up to the scores made by the 3618 
children in the general tabulation made up from the several 
states. As compared with the scores made on these tests by the 
corresponding grades elsewhere, the fifth, sixth, and seventh 
grades made the poorest showing of all. The eighth grade scores 
were slightly better. 



COURTIS STANDARD RESEARCH TESTS FOR SPEED 
• AND ACCURACY IN ARITTBIETIC— SERIES B. 

SPEED: XUMBER OF EXAMPLES ATTEMPTED 





4ddltion 


Subtraction 


Multiplication 


Division 




o 






a 


« 


<a 






aj 


aj 


e 






0) 


4) 


Sj 






aj 


(U 




CS 


o 


o 




03 


(S 


-s 


ffl 


C3 


C3 


CS 


o 


© 


03 


03 


C3 


o 


s 


03 


03 




O 




a 


C2 


CD 


O 


C3 


:3 


CS 


n 


C 


s 


83 


o 


C5 


o 


a 


03 


O 


C-J 




s: 


C 


O 




r; 


a 


o 


O 






s: 


5 


o 




X3 


s 


O 


a 




j: 




g 


«-i 


y. 


a 
> 


% 


3 

o 


s 


Y. 


a 

CD 
> 


52 
be 


c 


■w 


y. 


s 


be 


3 
o 


£ 


y. 


> 






h 


iZ 


m 


■Ji 


K 


Uh 


iij 


xn 


m 


y 


^ 


■^ 


X 


X 


"^ 


iil 


E 


xn 


XJi 


^ 


General.* 










































Feb.. 1014, 










































3618 children 


4.7 


7.1 


8.0 


8.9 


9.7 


5.7 


6.5 


8.9 


10.2 


11.7 


3.9 


6.0 


7.2 


8.4 


9.9 


3.1 


4.5 


5.8 


7.6 


9.2 


Boston, 










































Mav, 101.5, 










































55,S71 chil- 










































dren 


8.0 


0.4 


11.0 


12.0 


13.4 


7.6 


9.3 


11.0 


12.0 


13.3 


6.0 


7.5 


9.2 


10.3 


11.4 


4.8 


6.3 


8.7 


10.0 


12.0 


Detroit, 










































Mav, 1015, 










































2850 children 


6.7 


S.4 


9.6 


10.3 


12.0 


7.3 


9.4 


10.1 


11.2 


13.6 


5.5 


7.4 


8.9 


9.5 


11.5 


4.1 


5.7 


8.5 


9.4 


12.1 


Iowa, .Tune, 










































1915, 11,800 










































children — 


6.9 


S.2 


8.S 


9.0 


10.4 


7.3 


9.0 


9.9 


11.1 


12.8 


6.3 


7.6 


8.8 


10.4 


11.6 


4.9 


6.3 


7.6 


9.1 


11.9 


Texas Rural 










































Survey, 










































Mar., 1916 


5.6 


5.H 


7.2 


6.1 


8.1 


6.4 


6.0 


8.6 


9.3 


10.6 


5.1 


4.4 


6.5 


7.7 


9.3 


2.4 


3.0 


4.2 


6.3 


8.4 



ACCURACY: PERCENTAGE OF EXAMPLES RIGHT 

























Multinlic 


a- 














Addition 


Subtraction 


tion 


Division 




2 
5 


CJ 


T1 


« 


i> 

■a 


03 


01 

T-, 


<a 




Si 

5 


aj 

•a 

03 


aj 


0) 

■n 


03 


5 




01 




% 


1 




O 


03 


'C- 


cr 


c. 


O 


C8 


g 




a 


ci 


03 


03 


C 


(5 


o 




? 


C 


-^ 




jr. 




c 


— 




i:; 


o 


O 


7" 


- 


^ 


o 


o 




n 


x: 


c 


O 


7", 


r- 




"t^ 


r- 


,r; 


c 






.c 


c 


q 


c 


■f^ 


j: 


c 


c 


j: 




r, 


x: 


c 












































o 


Itl 


y. 


•f 


tl 


O 


!tl 


y. 






b 


«W 


y. 


^ 




o 


tt 


K 




.r? 




40 


55 


55 


.53 


^ 


liH 


1^ 


68 


a. 


72 


33 


43 


62 


6?! 


67 


28 


,52 


72 


76 


~ 


General,* Feb., 1914, .3618 children 


58121 


68 


Boston, May, 1915, 55, 271 children 


66 


71 


/•T 


75 


78 81 


S.S 


87 86 


88 


67 


74 


78 


SO 


SI 


63 


77 


87 


88 


02 


Detroit, May, 1915, 2850 children 


64 


6S 


73 


73 


78 72 


84 


85 88 


92 


67 


79 


81 


82 


85 


.53 


81 


86 


95 


97 


Iowa, June, 1915, 11,800 children 


,58 


63 


64 


70 


72,73 


7S 


SI ,83 


87 


66 


75 


76 


70 


82 63 


79 


84 


88 


92 


Texas Rural Survey, March, 1916 


46 


50 


62 


53 


62 44 


46 


.5173 


68 


36 


42 


53 


55 


.57,37 


42 


57 


!54 


68 



*That is, derived from, the tabulation of results from schools in 
many different cities and states 



36 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

As a test for the reasoning ability of tli&se pupils on arith- 
metical problems, Starch's Arithmetical Scale A was used. The 
results from the fourth to the eighth grade were duly tabulated. 
Each grade scored below the scale standard established for it. 
The fourth grade was 11 per cent below standard ; the fifth grade 
19 per cent; the sixth grade 5 per cent; the seventh grade 6 
per cent; and the eighth grade 8 per cent. 

Descriptive and Physical Geography : There were 272 pupils 
studying descrijjtive geography, and 85 pupils studying physi- 
cal geography. No special attention was given to these subjects 
in this investigation. 

Civics: Civics is taught in the seventh grade. There were 
36 white pupils doing seventh grade work. There were 90 pupils 
above seventh grade who presumably had studied civics in the 
past. There were only 16 negro pupils as high as the seventh 
grade and no Mexican pupils above fifth grade. This indicates 
that out of a total scholastic population of 2489 pupils only 142, 
or 1 in 17, had ever studied civics. Less than 6 per cent of so 
large a body of pupils having studied this subject does not augur 
very well for the future of democracy. 

Agriculture: There were two sets of agricultural charts, and 
two places, Maha and Cloud, were reported as having had school 
gardens the year before this survey was made. At three places 
there were veiy good collections of agricultural bulletins from 
the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the United States 
Department of Agriculture. Fifty-five pupils were studying 
Agriculture. 

Close inquiry w^as made as to the methods of teaching agri- 
culture. "While there was but little concrete material in sight 
for illustrative and experimental purposes; and most of the in- 
struction given was taken from the textbook, or other printed 
matter, it was at the same time encouraging to note that there 
was a general conviction among the teachers that the instruction 
in this subject must be made less formal. 

In the school of the future, germination tests of farm and gar- 
den seed, tests of milk for butter fat, the keeping of feeding and 
laying records for flocks of hens at home, and a study of the con- 
struction of model poulti'y houses, hog houses, and dairy barns. 



Rural Schools in Travis County 37 

-will furnish more interesting topics for class essays, applied arith- 
metic, and elementary lessons in general science than the tra- 
ditional textbook of today is doing.. The actual measurement of 
fields, and computing the capacities of cistenrs, silos, wheat bins, 
and corn cribs in the community will be much more conducive 
to interest and a working knowledge of the laws of arithmetic 
and practical agriculture than the printed problems in the text- 
books. 

Composition: There were 248 pupils reported in the teach- 
er's daily programs as studying composition. As indicated by 
these programs, more than twice as much time per pupil was 
given to English grammar as to English composition. 

All the children above the third grade were given a test in 
which they were required to write two or three short, original 
paragraphs. Each paper was carefully graded on its merits with 
reference to form, adequacy of treatment, phrasing, coherence, 
unity, diction, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The sum 
■of the points scored on all these rubrics was the grade made by 
each child. On a 100 point scale the averages made were as fol- 
lows: fourth grade 20.2; fifth grade 20; sixth grade 26.5; sev- 
enth grade 27.1 ; eighth grade 31 ; ninth grade 35.3 ; tenth grade 
40. 

The original purpose of the examinations in English compo- 
sition was to grade them by the Ballon Scale for Grading Eng- 
lish Composition* and compare the results with those of the Roy- 
al Street School of Dallas. However, the compositions available 
from the Royal Street School being reproduced stories, and the 
-ones from this test being original productions, made any just 
comparison impossible, and the idea was abandoned. 

History: There were 266 pupils in the courses that were of- 
fered in history but no special inquiry was made as to the char- 
.acter of work done. 

High School Studies: There were 90 pupils above the seventh 
grade. Sixty-three of these were in the schools at Elroy, Man- 
chaca, and Creedmoor. The remaining twenty-seven were in 
six other schools. 



*F. W. Ballou, Scale for Measuring English Compositions, The 
Harvard Bulletins, No. 11, September, 1914. 



38 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

All these pupils were pursuing the course in history and 
English as outlined in the State Course of Study. Fifty-five 
were studying agriculture ; forty-one, physical geography ; thirty- 
three, plane geometry ; sixty-eight, algebra ; twenty-four, Latin :;. 
fourteen, physics; six, bookkeeping; and thirteen, Spanish. 



V. THE TEACHERS. 

There were twenty-nine teachers employed in the fifteen white 
schools of the fourteen school districts where this investigation 
was conducted. Three of them are men and twenty-six are 
women. Their teaching experience varied from five months to 
twenty-two years, the average being 38.2 months. Four of them 
were beginners in the profession. 

These teachers were as migratory as most of the rural teachers 
in Texas. Seventeen were teaching their first year in the posi- 
tion then occupied; six, their second year; four, their third year; 
and two, their fourth year. The average time of service in the 
positions then held by the staff of twenty-nine teachers in this 
group of schools, was 1.6 years. 

The main causes for the short tenure of office in this area, as 
well as in the rural schools elsewhere in Texas, may be sum- 
marized as follows: (1) Many young teachers ambitious to 
teach in the city, regard the country schools as mere practice 
schools, where they may get the training in experience necessary 
to fit themselves for city positions, and, consequently, at first 
opportunity leave the country and take work in the city. (2) 
Many teachers who would otherwise remain in the country, find 
it impossible to do so because of social isolation, undesirable 
boarding places, small salaries, and poor school equipment. (3) 
Most persons using teaching as a temporary employment, or 
stepping stone to something else, are in the country and village 
schools. These consist, for the most part of young men prepar- 
ing for law, medicine, and the ministry, and of young women 
teaching until they marry. 

Living Conditions: Close inquiry was made as to the living 
conditions of the teachers. Five teachers were living at home, 
four were doing light housekeeping, and twenty were boarding. 
The prices for board and room ranged from $12 to $20 per 
month, the average being $16.21. Most of the teachers lived 
only a short distance from their schools, though twelve of the 
women teachers lived at an average distance of one and one- 
eighth miles from the schools they taught. With only a few ex- 



40 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

ceptions, the roads between boarding place and school were very 
good. Most of the boarding places were reported as good, some 
as very fair, and a few as unsatisfactory. In four instances, 
teachers were without stoves or other means of heat in their 
rooms at their boarding places, and were obliged to share in 
the family fireside to keep warm. 

In pioneer days the best families in the country competed for 
the honor of boai'ding the school teacher. Now, boarding the 
teacher is usually regarded as a matter of self-sacrificing accom- 
modation. At many places the boarding problem is one of the 
most serious issues the woman teacher has to face in the country. 

Locating the teacher in the most desirable boarding place 
available is a duty quite often overlooked by trustees. The 
teacher's efficiency in the schoolroom depends very largely on 
the comfort of her boarding place. When the teacher's board- 
ing place is anything less than the best and the most convenient 
possible the school is obliged to suffer to that extent. It is to the 
interest of the entire community that the teacher have a good 
place to live. 

Certificates and Salaries: Two of the teachers were graduates 
of the University, of- Texas, eleven had attended the University 
of Texas one and two years, four were Normal School gradu- 
ates, one was a graduate of the College of Industrial Arts, four 
were high school graduates, six had attended normal schools and 
colleges one and two years, and one had not graduated from 
high school. Five of these teachers held second-grade certifi- 
cates; sixteen, first grade certificates; and eight, permanent cer- 
tificates. 

The salaries varied from the minimum of $50 per month, to 
the maximum of $100 per month. The teachers holding second- 
grade certificates received an average salary of $56 per month; 
those holding first-grade certificates, $67.18 per month; and 
those holding permanent certificates, $75 per month. 

The salaries paid these teachers were somewhat better than 
the salaries paid rural teachers many places in the State. The 
academic strength, and the teaching ability of the staff of teach- 
ers in this group of schools, are far above the average for the 
rural teachers of Texas. But so long as salaries for teachers re- 



Rural Sdwols in Travis County 41 

main as low as they are throughout the State teaching will never 
be very attractive to much of the best talent of our present age. 
Law, medicine, the ministry, and business will continue to claim 
the majority of our strongest men and women. Where is the 
successful lawyer or doctor who would have ever consented to 
the idea of spending three or four years of the best part of his 
life in preparation for his profession, had it promised no greater 
financial return than a salary of from $50 to $150 per month for 
eight or ten months of the year. While the idealist tells us that 
the work, and not the reward, should be the paramount consid- 
eration in deciding what one's life work shall be — and that is 
correct — there can be at the same time but little doubt that bet- 
ter salaries would attract stronger men and women into the 
teaching profession. 

Attitude of tlie Teachers: After numerous interviews with 
patrons, trustees, and teachers, it was decided in the mind of 
the observer that the attitude of sixteen of these teachers toward 
the communities where they worked was that of sincere service. 
With a little more encouragement and support from patrons six 
of this number would be valuable community leaders. Thirteen 
were classed as having practically no interest in community af- 
fairs. Three of this thirteen stated a positive dislike for school 
teaching. Several of the women teachers were averse to teach- 
ing in the country, giving such reasons as : " These people have 
no interest in themselves and how could they expect anyone else 
to have an interest in them." "It is like prison to spend Sun- 
day out here." "I go to town every time I can get away from 
this place." "My boarding place is unpleasant." 

The attitude of the teachers toward their pupils, so far as 
could be determined, was, with three possible exceptions, that of 
sympathy and kindness. In these three instances the evidence 
indicated that the pupils did not co-operate well with the teach- 
ers, and that nagging and quarreling were the teachers' chief 
methods of governing them. 

Instniction: No detailed method of grading the efficiency 
of the teachers was adopted. While most of the schoolrooms 
were visited while classes were in session, the observer's visits 
were very short, usually extending over not more than one or 



42 Bulletin of the University of Teooas 

two class periods. In eight cases no teaeliing at all was observed, 
as the full day was taken up in giving the pupils efficiency tests 
in reading, spelling, writing, composition, and arithmetic. 

In nine of the twenty-one cases observed the questions asked 
and the illustrations given by the teachers, together with the re- 
sponses from the pupils, were such as to lead the observer to be- 
lieve that under normal conditions these teachers were direct, 
concrete, and inspiring instructors. In the remaining twelve 
cases there was but little to indicate that the teachers were any- 
thing more than mere drill-masters, or interpreters of-textbooks. 
It was gratifying to note that much of the best teaching was done 
in the primary grades. The primary work at Cloud and Elroy 
is worthy of special mention. 

Discussion: The time has come when the teacher in the 
country must be more than a mere academic instructor. The 
teacher's attitude toward the community must be that of a sym- 
pathetic social leader, and the instruction in all the grades must 
be more closely related to the problems of life and industry in the 
country than the schools have been in the habit of doing in the 
past. The Babcock milk testor, the work bench, the laboratory, 
problems in seed selection, livestock feeding, and the like must 
be given a place along with the library and the textbook. 

It is being discovered by a few wide-awake teachers that one 
of the best places in the whole public school system is in the 
better type of agricultural community, provided the teacher is 
big enough to assume the role of social leader, industrial leader, 
and school teacher all at the same time. For the man who un- 
derstands rural people and likes rural industry, the big country 
school with from four to six teachers has possibilities for de- 
velopment and financial returns that make it preferable to most 
of high school principalships in small towns. Examples of this 
kind may be found at Yancey in Medina County, the Geronimo 
High School in Guadalupe County, and the Montgomery Con- 
solidated School in McCulloch County. 

Much has been said about the poor pay for teachers. But con- 
sidering the character of service rendered, the remarkable thing 
is that many of them are as well paid as they are. Better salaries 
and better teachers are mutual complements. Better teachers 



Rural Sdiools in Travis County 43 

will attract larger salaries just as readily as larger salaries will 
attract first class teachers. There are scores of Texas communi- 
ties that will pay better salaries, improve their school equip- 
ment, and build teachers' homes, when it is clear to them that the 
presence and influence of the teacher in the community 's life are 
worth the price. 

The twentieth century is demanding that the rural teacher be 
a civic, social, and industrial leader as well as an academic in- 
structor. For the teacher whose educational ideals are purely 
academic, the way is hard and constantly growing harder. But 
for the man or woman whose vision of education is broader than 
the textbook and the four walls of the schoolroom, and whose 
interests are actively and intelligently identified with all the 
legitimate affairs of the community, a brighter day is dawning 
in the realm of public education in Texas. 



VI. THE PUPILS 

The scholastic census taken by local school officials during the- 
time this survey was being conducted gave 948 v^rhite children, 
908 Negro children, and 633 Mexican children. The ones at- 
tending school were distributed among fifteen white schools, 
fourteen Negro schools, and four Mexican schools, with the ex- 
ception of twenty-five Mexican children who were attending 
white schools. 




A Transient Mexican Family 



White Pupils: The white children consisted of 720 Ameri- 
cans, 127 Germans, 94 Swedes and Norwegians, 6 Italians, 4 Aus- 
trians, and 2 Danes. Of the 948 whites enumerated, 845 were 
enrolled in school, attending an average of. 89 days each. For 
the same year the whites enrolled in the Austin schools attended 
135 days each. 

Mexican Pupils: Of the 633 Mexidan children enumerated 
only 219 entered school, averaging 45 days each in attendance. 



Rural Schools in Travis County 



45 



This left 424 Mexican children of school age to run at large over 
the country during the months while schools were in session. 
Many of these children have very shiftless parents who work as 
day laborers at cutting spinach, picking cotton, chopping wood, 
and the like, seldom remaining at one place longer than a few 
months at a time. The most attention ever given by local .school 
authorities to the transient element of the Mexican children is 
during the week when the scholastic census is being taken. Then 
it is that they are diligently sought out by the census enumera- 
tors, that their annual pro rata from the State may be claimed 
for maintaining the schools in the district where they may 
chance to be sojourning. 





ENUMERATION AND ENROLLMENT OF PUPILS 

Ulhites 




94-6 Cnumaratei ^^^^^H 










845 enrolled ■ 






.mexlcans 






633 enumerated ^^^^^^^^H 






Jle^roes 






908 Cnam^rated 








■ 




917 6nrolle<! 


1 









Negro Pujjils: There were 908 Negro children enumerated 
and 917 enrolled in school. This increase of enrollment over 
enuemeration was due to two causes: (1) Some children of 
tenant families that moved from one district to another while 
school was in session were enrolled in two schools at different 



46 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

times during tbe same year and in this way were counted twice 
in making up the teacher's annual reports. (2) A considerable 
number of children not of free school age, were enrolled. 

While the negroes show a greater percentage of enrollment 
than the whites, the average numbei- of days attended by those 
enrolled was much less. The Negro pupils enrolled averaged 
54 days each in attendance, as compared with 89 days for the 
white pupils enrolled. 

Causes for Irregular Attendance: The cause most commonly 
assigned by teachers for irregular school attendance was the in- 
difference of parents. While there were some self-sacrificing 
parents who sent their children to school with a fair degree of 
regularity, there were others who made but little effort to do so. 
In some cases school attendance was left by the parents entirely 
to the discretion of the child, and in other cases the parents sent 
their children to school only when they could find nothing in the 
way of work for them to do at home. In order of their fre- 
quency as causes given by the teacher for poor school attend- 
ance, next to the indifference of parents, were bad weather and 
muddy roads, moving, and cotton picking. 

Distrihution of Pupils in the Grades: The relative efficiency 
of these schools can be roughly estimated by the manner in 
which the pupils are distributed through the grades. In Aus- 
tin 13.7 per cent of the white pupils are in the first grade, while 
19.5 per cent of the white pupils in this group of rural schools 
were in the first grade. In other words, 5.8 per cent more of the 
Austin pupils had passed from the first grade to the grades 
above than was true in the country schools. At the same time, 
5.2 per cent of the Austin white pupils graduated from the elev- 
enth grade, while only 1.4 of the rural white pupils graduated 
from the tenth grade. 

The comparisons for the colored schools are even more striking 
than for the white schools. While 26 per cent of the colored 



Rural Schools in Travis County 47 

pupil's in Austin were in the first grade, 35.2 per cent of the col- 
ored pupils in the country were in the first grade. In the 
country no colored pupil was higher than the seventh grade, 
while in Austin 4.5 per cent of the colored pupils were in the 
eighth grade, and .7 per cent graduated from the eleventh grade. 

No separate data could be obtained for the Mexicans of the 
Austin schools, as they were classed as whites and reported to- 
gether vidth the whites. Of the 219 Mexicans enrolled in the 
rural schools, 62.5 per cent were in the first grade, 27.8 per cent 
in the second grade, and none higher than the fifth grade. In 
fact only 1.4 per cent had reached the fifth grade. 

The foregoing facts are sufficient to warrant a closer study of 
the rural school business in this part of the State. There are 
some pupils who never enter school, and of those who do 65.2 
per cent of the whites, 85.3 per cent of the negroes, and 98.6 per 
cent of the Mexicans are below the fifth grade. Such ineffici- 
ency among the rural public schools is casting a shadow of 
doubt over the future hopes of Texas. They are not productive 
of the highest ideals of citizenship and the highest types of 
social and industrial efficiency. 



AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS ATTENDED 
BY EACH PUPIL ENROLLED IN' SCHOOL 



136 pays 



lUhites in Jlustin - 1-800 pupils 

lUhites in rural area supveyed — 8f5 pupils 

Jie^roes in Jlustin — 1852 children 

Jle^vofs in rural area survesed --917 children 

JRexicaos tti area surveged •- 219 children 

AVERAGE LENGTH OF SCHOOL TE:RM 

JlusHn 



136 Days 



J^ural Survey — 15 Ulhite schools 
I J^ural Survey- 14-Jle^ro schoob 



-%ral Survey —4 JHexican schools 



VII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 

State Aid: There was not a single rural school in Travis 
County that qualified for State aid from the Million Dollar Eu- 
ral School Fund last year. In a number of counties much less 
wealthy than Travis County twenty or more rural districts, by 
voting a 50 cent school tax and providing their schools with 
such physical equipment as is otherwise required by law, were 
permitted to participate in this fund to amounts not exceeding 
$500 for any one school. 

In that this law aims to help those schools that are trying to 
help themselves it is fundamentally correct. Too many schools, 
like thriftless paupers, are relying upon the small annual appro- 
priations from the State for their financial support. Communi- 
ty spirit is generated by self-activity on the part of the com- 
munity. Possibly no other thing could mean so much to many 
dormant school communities of Travis County just now as to 
wake up and exercise enough local interest in themselves to in- 
stall some libraries and modem heating systems in their schools, 
and otherwise meet the requirements of the law so as to earn a 
share in the State aid now available for rural schools in Texas, 
Fifty-nine school boards in Travis County now have an ample 
opportunity to encourage their respective constituencies to raise 
their school standards. 

ScJiool Equipment: In the great constructive process of mak- 
ing a better system of schools for any community adequate phy- 
sical equipment with proper financial support is the first prac- 
tical step. The teacher is a fundamental essential, but those 
schools having the best quarters and the best salaries usually at- 
tract the best teachers. So long as the amount invested in school 
property in the white schools of this area remains at $23.72 per 
child, it will be very difficult for school boards to secure as strong 
teachers as might be had if the value of the school equipment 
were three or four times as great. 

Teaching school without adequate libraries, charts, globes, 
maps, and blackboards is a difficult task. Furthermore, for the 
best of results in a rural school, there should be a sufficient 



Rural Schools in Travis County 51 

amount of apparatus to make possible some simple experiments 
at milk testing, seed testing, budding, grafting, farm terracing, 
and the like. Who would not think it very poor business for a 
farmer to employ a hand and give him no tools, or very poor 
ones at least, to work with? Yet, that is in principle exactly 
what many rural schools in this State are doing every year. 

But all the equipment should not be confined to the inside of 
the house. The school garden, and also the home garden, 
should constitute one of the essential parts of the rural school 
laboratory, and the playground with plenty of substantial play 
apparatus is just as essential to the spirit and morals of the 
student body. The best school spirit and the best general school 
work found in the course of this investigation were at Creed- 
moor, where the playground of four acres was equipped with a 
baseball diamond, a vaulting pole, basketball courts, race tracks, 
hurdles, and other play apparatus. For these reasons school 
boards that will be called upon to secure new building sites 
within the next few years should exercise due diligence in ob- 
taining sufficient amounts of desirable land. 

At two of the schools the furniture was very primitive, con- 
sisting in one instance of old home-made desks, and in the other 
of badly defaced double desks and slat benches. In some in- 
stances where new single desks had been purchased, they were 
not installed so that all the desks in the same row were of the 
same size. There were 212 pupils who had their feet dangling 
from the floor or were otherwise uncomfortably seated. If com- 
fortable and convenient teacher's desks and chairs had been pro- 
vided for thirteen of the women teachers their strength would 
have been greatly economized, and the character of the work in 
some cases very perceptibly improved. 

The Securing of Teachers.- According to past practice three 
years from now these fifteen schools will have made a complete 
change of teachers. Some new teachers will have to be employed 
every year. To meet this exigency trustees will find it easier to 
secure strong teachers by going into the market and bidding for 
them than by choosing from those who may chance to apply. Po- 
sitions are always seeking strong teachers, while the weak and 
inexperienced ones spend much time seeking positions. 



52 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

Most country schools are in want of more practical lessons 
and simple demonstrations on such topics as agriculture, horti- 
culture, floriculture, animal husbandry, farm management, and 
the like, given in connection with the usual public school studies 
by teachers interested in country life and equipped with an un- 
derstanding of its needs. But when will the country have a 
corps of teachers capable of so vitalizing the course of study in 
this way? Not until public sentiment demands them. The pat- 
rons, teachers, and trustees of today are responsible for the pub- 
lic school sentiment of tomorrow. The trustees of each succeed- 
ing year should persistently contend for teachers of this high 
standard until they ultimately become available. 

A Graduated Land Tax: Several of the communities iuclud-' 
ed in this survey are suffering from internal economic disorder. 
Too few people own the land. All the land in the area surveyed 
is owned by thirty-seven per cent of the people. A much smaller 
per cent owns and controls more than half of it. This condition 
is impoverishing the spirit of many homes, and of most of the 
churches and schools. Hundreds of communities elsewhere in 
Texas are suffering from the same ailment. 

It is all but futile to inaugurate any scheme for social or ed- 
ucational reform and at the same time ignore any one of its fun- 
damental hindering causes. That the problems of education can 
ever be successfully solved in a community of high-priced land 
and farm tenants is very doubtful to anyone thoroughly conver- 
sant with such conditions. The homeless man is limited in his 
usefulness as a citizen. He seldom identifies himself with the 
church, school, and civic interests of the neighborhood as he 
would if he owned the land he lived on. He may be a good school 
patron, but the exhilerating stimulus of home ownership would 
make him a better one. 

A tax on land so distributed as to place the burden of it on the 
larger estates would tend to make land less desirable as specula- 
tive property. With such a tax in operation investments would 
gradually withdraw themselves from land to other fields of spec- 
ulative and productive adventure. This would cause a corres- 
ponding reduction in the price of land, and land would become 
less desirable as property except as a place to live. As a result 



Bural ScJiools in Travis Comity 53 

land would be held in smaller tracts and owned by more of the 
families who live on it. 

A County School Tax: In Travis County a county-wide 
school tax would do much toward relieving the linancial dis- 
tress of many school districts now suffering from artificial eco- 
nomic pressure from without. No other one measure could do 
more for the immediate solution of the problems of school finance 
in many tenant communities. A county school tax would cause 
a more equitable distribution of the costs of education according 
to one's ability to pay, and an extension of adequate educational 
privileges to m.any children of poor parents in the country. 
Until outside assistance is given to many communities in Texas 
now economically helpless, their schools must continue in a state 
of most abject squalor. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRES 



019 885 539 fl 




